How in a Cricket country nation like India, Football has made its mark and is increasing its popularity day by day. It is because the popularity of Football among the youth of India. Yes cricket is a religion for Indians and they follow it through thick and thin but Young Indians might have a different opinion about it. People are talking about the English Premier League, Champions League, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Lionel Messi in India and there has been not that craze about cricket among young people which we used to find ten years back.
Football is a fast paced sport, it is 90 minutes of running, tackling, kicking. Nowadays people get bored of spending 5 days or an entire match to watch a game of cricket. If cricket had not introduced Twenty Twenty format, cricket might have lost its place as the number one sport in India after let’s say 20 years. Just like cricket in India-Pakistan, Football has a passion, emotions, drama, action, excitement which every sports lover needs. There is no doubt that all these things are more in Football than in Cricket. Being a football fan also makes you feel cool, talking about Manchester United and Livepool instead of India and Bangladesh test series generates a new excitement.
IPL has been like a lifeline for cricket, but the match fixing scams has made everyone think that every match is fixed and it’s entirely scripted which has made many young people hate it. Stats don’t lie, IPL’s TRP ratings from season 1 to season 7 has decreased. Even TV channels have been covering the European Football Leagues more nowadays. You would find more people with jerseys of Barcelona than of Chennai Super Kings and ofcourse even though IPL has shown the power of Money that cricket has, It cannot be even compared to the Club Football. Gareth Bale who holds the record of the most expensive transfer in football of 85miilion pounds which is more than 8000000000 Rs, which cannot be even compared to IPL’s highest fees of Yuvraj Singh 140000000 Rs.
All in all it is true that Football’s popularity among youth has increased but there is no doubt that Cricket is a sport which will remain in the hearts of Indians forever.
– Jainam Jhaveri
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